The Immortal's Blood
by M.L. Faulkner
Summary: Five years succeeding her return from 2013's adventure to Yamatai, Lara is met with the challenge of finding one of China's ancient lost treasures: The Dagger of Xian. Amidst the sense of thrill and escapade, Lara must force herself to new horizons both mentally and physically, reuniting with familiar faces, some even from classic TR. A recreation of TRII in the reboot world.


The Immortal's Blood, Chapter 1 – Oxford

Written by M.L. Faulkner

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><p>Because we need a new Alister<p>

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><p>"Miss Croft!" I heard a man yell my name, breaking the silence Oxford University's library had accumulated whilst simultaneously gaining several dirty looks from middle aged professors as well as a few students, one of which pushed his face into a book, obviously hung over and yelling didn't help the ache in his head. I looked up to see just who would do such a thing, second hand embarrassment flooded my cheeks with colour. It was another student seemingly, about my age if not a little older, wearing somewhat large black framed glasses, a suit jacket with brown skinny jeans, and a casual t-shirt to top it off. I suppose this could classify as hipster, but there was a rather fascinated look upon his face that gave the impression of a certain level of sophistication about him.<p>

At the same time, it was almost child like, the way he trotted over as though he had met a famous cartoon character at Disney Land over in The States. As he neared closer, still sporting a gleeful look, I realized that if it had been half a decade earlier, I might have mistaken him for Alex, and the impulse to ask why he was in a place without a computer nearly executed itself as he sat across from me, holding out his hand to introduce himself.

"Alister Fletcher, doctoral student of Archaeology and Ancient History." This _never_ would have been the Alex Weiss I knew, I quickly realised. I held out my hand to return the formal introduction.

"I'd introduce myself as well, but it seems you, and now everybody else, knows just who I am," he looks around and noticing the few people still watching and puts his head slightly down in discomposure. "But, to complete the introductions, Lara Croft, former UCL graduate with a recently deemed Master's Degree in archaeology and anthropology." I smiled while shaking his hand in hopes to ease the discomfort both of us now felt, however any trace of said unease looked as though it faded away, as the same childish grin filled with curiosity reappeared upon his face. "Can I help you?"

It was _incredibly_ awkward for me, it was as though I was an exotic animal in its natural habitat, which in hindsight _is_ exactly how Sam would describe me. He pulled out a small stack of papers from a messenger bag I hadn't even noticed he had and held them in his hands, shielding them from my face as he explained. "Yeah, nice to meet you, anyway," and once again breaking the formality of the moment, "I read your paper on China and the importance of the Qin Dynasty's reign over the kingdom and, well..." His voiced trailed off for a few quick seconds, making it seems as though he hadn't rehearsed the moment again and again in his head, which to me was obvious he had.

"Go on." I tell him, pushing him to say what he already had planned.

He left out a fake and nervous smile and finally said, "Well, first, it was brilliant," he was trying to smooth talk me, "and I don't mean to insult you, but you left out something kind of big when talking about important artefacts surrounding Qin Shi Huang." He laid one of the sheets of paper in front of me, a monochrome image of a dagger with scale gripped gold handle, the blade made to look as though it was emerging from the mouth of a dragon. Clear Chinese symbols were emblazoned along the cheek and grind of the blade. Add that to the list of languages I need to learn.

I picked up the sheet of paper and gazed at it in awe. Even for an image of poor detail, it was beautiful, and as I looked closer I noticed the eye of the dragon was a gem of some kind, though the lack of colour made it difficult to tell what kind. "It's absolutely–"

"Stunning," he said, taking the words right out of my mouth, "I know. Do you know what happened toward the end of the First Emperor's reign?"

"He looked for a way to live forever. Everyone knows the tale, a set of men and women, 500 each, set out with an alchemist hired by the emperor, treading the eastern seas to expedite the discovery of the Elixir of Life." I paused for a moment, remembering the most important detail. "None of the men or women returned." I glanced at the image once more and then made eye contact once more with Alister. "What are you proposing, exactly?"

"That he didn't just stop at the mere _idea_ of immortality after their disappearances. He didn't just give up after it all ended. It's spread out across all mythology of history, whether it's a king ruling with an iron fist or just the average person, the biggest fear any of them have in common, if any, is the face of death itself." _This_ was the sophistication I thought I had seen earlier. "Myths are always created, going on and on about the object that was forged to laugh at fear, protecting them from death forever. We saw a simple version of it with cinnabar, but due to the amount of deaths that followed after its consumption, that clearly didn't work, but another place we saw it was in places like the Holy Grail, the Philosopher's Stone, and like you said about the Elixir of Life." I notice that he's become less tense as my clear hook of intrigue seems to grow. "One artefact that seemingly goes missing from all of this is one specific dagger."

I hold the sheet of paper with the image and flip it over so he sees it. "It wouldn't happen to be this beauty, would it?" I asked in a nerdy history buff sort of way. I've spent so much time with Sam that I could almost hear all of the jokes she could be making right now without her even having to be in the same county as I am.

"That she is," he continued with his fable, "It has a few names, some simply call it the Dagger of Immortality, but locals prefer to call it the Dagger of Xi'an."

"I don't understand, I've _been_ to that part of China before. The Great Wall, The Great Mosque, all of it. Wouldn't I have heard of it?" It was the truth. Sam and I even dragged Reyes and Alisha along a couple years ago. It was one of the few occasions that I promised we be strictly tourists and stuck to my word. I didn't want to put them in harms way again; Alisha really enjoyed it there, if there's any of Roth's genetics mixed in with her, it's definitely a sense of adventure.

"In modern day, it's been forgotten. Groups of archaeologists have attempted to excavate multiple supposed locations, but due to strict historical preservation laws in that area, many have since been abandoned."

I could already see where this was going, like a predictable scene in film that I've been exposed to time and time again. "Let me guess," I began in a mocking voice, "You know where it is, you want me to find it, bla bla bla, all you need is the funds to do it, and since I'm _loaded_ with all that Yamatai money, I'll get right on that!" He swallowed what I imagine could have been nervousness all over again. "I don't have the money you think I do, so forget it."

"Tha- that's not what I was asking, actually." As he said this, I continued gathering my annotated notebooks and miscellaneous papers I had scribbled words onto and through them into my bag, not giving time to organise them. "I don't want your money, I already have that arranged. I want your help." I throw my bag over my back and notice I had left the picture of the dagger on the table and let out a sigh, taking a pen back out of my bag and threw it on the table.

"Write your number on the back of the paper, I'll take it with me. Oxford gave me a job offer for a lecture here in the university and I have to be there in about five minutes." He accepted the offer and takes the pen, scribbling ten digits onto the page below an underlined, all capital name: ALISTER.

"Your lecture isn't for another thirty minutes, actually. I'm attending it. But the extra time will allow you to review some of the notes I have here, feel free to expand upon them." To be honest, I had completely forgotten the other papers in his hands, I was too busy looking at the dagger, but he handed them to me and I couldn't help but to feel a little bit stalked at the moment. He had not only read my paper, but he also kept up with what happened a few years ago after Yamatai. I imagine he also kept tabs on me while I was on other adventures that I tried to keep under wraps as well. Now on top of that, he's attending my lectures here at Oxford, though there's something interesting about him, regardless of his slight obsession with my work and me. Truthfully I saw a bit of myself in him, obsessed with the unknown and those who seek to uncover it, I just felt uncomfortable knowing that I'm being scrutinised all over again.


End file.
